Wilson’s thoughts on Sharks’ lack of scoring, energy conservation at practice — and more

So what does general manager Doug Wilson think of his team these days?

We got a chance to ask him today and a quick, online version of the interview was posted a short while ago at http://www.mercurynews.com/sharks/ci_22699622/san-jose-sharks-general-manager-says-team-needs and touted by @PollakOnSharks, so I’m hoping a few of you are already up to date.

I won’t repeat everything here, but the take-away is that Wilson and coach Todd McLellan are on the same page, though Wilson came up with the catchier phrasing:

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“We’ve become a pass-first team in a shoot-first league,” he said. “Our guys have to change that.”

The GM talked about a lot more than that, but I’ll do my part to drive traffic to the web site and not go into everything here.

But, after the usual advisory that he wasn’t making excuses, Wilson did disclose that Ryane Clowe has been playing the “a couple of injuries” that weren’t serious enough to sideline him, but did add to his frustrations on the ice.

And you got the idea that until both Clowe and Brent Burns were healthy, Wilson wasn’t ready to pull the trigger on any trades, let alone push any panic buttons.

Just as a teaser, I will include the story’s final quote here, too, as Wilson talked about his thoughts on the trade process:

“Every team goes through the same process as us. Is this a team that’s in position to win and do you mortgage some of your future to get them to that point? Are they a team that needs to play better to let you know that they are that type of team? Are they a team that’s not at that point and should the team be refreshed and reset? Those are all appropriate questions that performance and adjustment will dictate. We’re in a phase of seeing where we are.”

*****Today’s Sharks practice may have looked like an optional as only about two-thirds of the players were on the ice.

But nobody had an option. Some players were told to skate, others were told to work out, but stay off the ice.

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Call it an exercise in energy management.

“We talked after the game last night that the energy level wasn’t real good,” McLellan said. “Some guys play a lot of minutes, some guys have played since September. I’m concerned about their energy level.

“Giving them some time right now, a half hour off of practice time, just to rest mentally and physically, we’re going to try that,” he continued. “I don’t know if that’s the answer, but we’re going to try something.”

Those who haven’t been getting as many minute worked skill drills that focused on offense.

“We’ll blend it all back together for tomorrow,” McLellan said.

He was asked to expand on the lack of mental energy.

“I feel a little sense of frustration – squeezing it, not making the plays we normally make. We saw a breakaway and two 2-on-1s yesterday and we didn’t get a shot on goal,” McLellan said, adding that normally a team could generate as many as five shots on those three opportunities.

“Because we’re starving for offense right now, it’s magnified and rightly so. The 2-on-1s, I believe that both of the puck carriers were thinking pass first. As the lanes got closed off, you get deeper and deeper and you run out of real estate and you force it.

“But,” the coach continued, “they’re brilliant players. They’ve played for 1,000 games and scored points and have silver sticks hanging on their walls because they’re such good players. We can’t dictate every moment of every game.

Which leaves Wingels and Havlat with another maintenance day and Burns on the IR. Unless I’ve forgotten someone. Which I’m sure I’ll hear about in the comment section.

(Which reminds me. Way too many lines crossed down there in the last 24 hours. If the I’ve mastered the technology, a few voices have been silenced. They earned the muzzling, believe me. Tempted on a few others, but decided to simply excise the posting rather than take the next step.)

****So how does McLellan think Gomez is doing with his shot at a second-line role?

“I think Gomer’s been the best in 4-on-4 situations where he has some ice and can make some plays,” McLellan said, noting that while Gomez (0 goals, 2 assists) also has been a good presence in the room, “at the end of the day we need some production from everybody.”

****And the coach’s thoughts on Matt Irwin’s first game after returning from Worcester?

“Every tme he plays, he looks like he fits in and belongs here — plays with total confidence, plays on his toes rather than his heels. Has a tremendous shot and gets it through. We’re struggling big-time getting our point shots through . . . and that’s one area where matty Irwin is pretty good.”

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

#49: Because a whole bunch of players sit on benches but only one coach sits on the seat, and it’s ALWAYS quicker and easier to cook one coach than a whole bunch of players.

Stevo

For the fire Doug Wilson crowd that refuse to accept any reality which doesn’t fit their reality:

[I missed this one from yesterday]

Bring ’em back says:
March 1st, 2013 at 11:40 am

Minus White, Babcock calls Wings defense ‘best group that we had all year’

Well, I guess that does not say much for Ian White

Stevo

FDW, NoCupsWithDW,hockeynut:

None of you have gone as far as to list what you’d do at this season’s trade deadline, much less over the summer, to fix the roster.

I’m not going to beat this dead horse anymore. However, since you and your ilk have proven that you don’t know how to do DW’s job any better, I’d like to politely ask you all to stop your incessant (and now proven) ignorant rantings about DW.

Also please stop the same about old trades. Anyone can do that in hindsight.

It’s obvious you guys love the Sharks, but can’t understand why it isn’t easy to play the game and win the Cup. I can only try to help by suggesting you read some good books on the great GM’s/Coaches/Teams/Players.

With your proven internet access and proven time to burn on it, the above undertaking should be a simple one. Amazon and the internet.

No excuses now. Good luck. WTC looks forward to reading wise posts from your group very soon. Rather than your unending biatching about things virtually no one can answer or solved.

Certainly, we all now know, not you three.

Winter Gnome

#5 remember Gorges, Carle, Erhoff. Young D men we had and got rid of and we have really only Boyle to show for it. Our D is playing very well, keep them intact. Unload our offensive players who glide into the zone and turn away from the defense game after game and pass the puck around till they lose it.
we need a overhaul badly

Stevo

ZEKE,

I certainly appreciate the thought you put into your posts. I can pretty much agree with L4/3/2. But you’ll need to do some work to convince me on your L1 configuration.

Mainly, my friend, I will likely never be convinced to use Burns at forward. If he can’t learn to play better D, then yes, I’m with you. But we cannot evaluate him until a year from now. It takes at least 2 months to “recover” from that kind of surgery, but longer if you reaggravate it.

If, as one poster claims, he has additional complications, then who knows what his final health status might be.

Stevo

From Mr. Pollak’s write up:

“Joe envisions himself as a passer. The shooters are scoring a lot of goals right now, and people are benefiting from it,” McLellan said. “As the game evolves, you have to evolve with it. He has to shoot the puck more. We’ll talk to him about it, but he has to be a threat to shoot it.”

It’s obvious that this will benefit the team, and likely Jumbo, but the thought crossed my mind that, if I’m the opposing Coaches and Jumbo drops a hattie, the D scheme for the Sharks has to be largely rewritten.

How could that ever be construed as a bad thing?

Stevo

Winter Gnome,

Gorges, Carle, and Ehrhoff. I agree with your ordering. Carle and certainly Ehrhoff are nothing to write home about. Just solid Dmen in imo.

I like Gorges though.

Sharks!!!

Its really painful to watch when the Sharks go Robinson on the bench, I just wish he can take over! It can’t get any worse right? I see a lot of people complaining about Gomez, but remember he is only making 700k. Cheap 3rd or 4th liner center. I think the Ducks win the division witout a doubt.
And Galiardi, Burish, Shepard had their best game of the season against Avs, and TMac let useless Clowe in there ….

Sharks!!!

Got Robinson*

hockeynut

Dave Dev as opposed to Clowe who is on a pace to score ZERO goals? Yeah, I’ll take Setoguchi back in a heartbeat. Anyone who understand basic hockey knows that even “less than 20 goals” is better than ZERO goals. Geebus…..seriously? I had to explain that to you?

Oh Canada

Not true that the Sharks don’t shoot, Wilson. They are 8th in shots at 30.1 per game. The Ana Ducks, who are far better this year than the Sharks, shoot only 27.6 shots per, and they are 25th in the league in shots

But the Ducks score 3.32 goals per game, while the Sharks score only 2.21 goals per

So, basically 30 shots to score 2 goals for the Sharks, and only 27 shots to score 3 goals for the Ducks.

That suggests that the problem is not scarce shots, but poor goal scorers who cannot cash in or finish .

No Wilson,

You basically have a team of popgun pipsqueaks in a sniper league.

That Bearded Puck

Seto is as one dimensional as they come. what’s he do when he’s not scoring? oh right, nothing.

At least clowe hits, fights, makes plays from the bench, etc.

Section 219

The Sharks’ 3rd and 4th lines are really no better than AHL lines. The second line has either Couture or Pavalski depending on how TMac shuffles things, but in reality it’s probably a 3rd line on most teams. That leaves the burden of scoring to the top line.

Unfortunately, opponents know this and put their top D line against our top line. Result: no goals from the top line. Our other 3 lines aren’t that good and so the Sharks end up scoring 15 goals over 12 games.

Ultimately this problem boils down to one thing — draft picks. Instead of sending our picks to other teams for rent-a-players, DW should have been building via the draft. As it is, we have half the team made up of weak AHL players with no hope of improving because we have no high-level picks.

One only need look at the 49ers to see how a good team builds. The Niners drafted Kaepernik, Crabtree, the O-line, etc., and still have a whopping 15 picks in this year’s draft. The Sharks, they haven’t had a 1st round pick in years. And with 30 teams in the league, by the time you draft in the middle of the 2nd round, you’re simply not getting NHL caliber talent.

DW is not a good drafting GM. Instead he relies on trades, and unfortuantely he’s made a bunch of bad ones for every good one. During TMac’s tenure, the team has declined in talent every single year; and that’s DW’s fault.

If the Sharks ownership is serious about winning, they’ll make a change at GM first, then look at the coaches and players down the road. As long as DW is calling the shots on on-ice talent, the Sharks will not win a Cup. Plain and simple.

NoCupWithDW

Stevo,

I think the point is we would do very little at the trade deadline because of what DW has done in the past. He is useless. Hence, the call to FIRE DW, not trade one or two guys to patch a sinking ship.

Next, a team’s identity is formed at the top of the organization, not at the team level. The team reflects the GM and his organization, not the other way around.

Also, no one asks you to stop writing your incessantly bad and use dribble. This is the United States of America, home of FREE SPEECH. Feel free to return to whatever country you came from which limits FREE SPEECH.

As Denny Green said, “the Sharks are exactly who we thought they wehere”. a mediocre team on the way down, with a GM who is blinded by his own ego.

Said this before and I will say it again, DW and Thornton will NEVER WIN A STANLEY CUP.

NoCupWithDW

Stevo,

It is amazing so many people in this blog are saying EXACTLY what I have been saying for years, yet you want to engage in online warfare with me.

Usually I skip over your dribble, made the mistake of reading it today. will not happen again. Feel free to do the same with my posts….

NoCupWithDW

The Bearded Puck,

“At least clowe hits, fights, makes plays from the bench, etc.”

If I may adjust your statement a little, At least clowe hits, fights, makes illegalplays from the bench, etc. 🙂

hockeynut

You really can’t reason with fanboys who honestly believe that Clowe is a more valuable player than Setoguchi. Just give it up guys.

That Bearded Puck

I figured that because the latest bench related play was deemed legal, I could leave it ambiguous.

NoCupWithDW

Oh Canada,

I am soooo tired of Randy and Drew telling us almost every night how the Sharks are out shooting the opposition, like that is a good thing. Or how the players keep saying more shots, more traffic.

I say, less shots, less traffic and more skill plays. More quick passes and quick accurate shots.

And TMac, when you teach the players to go to the net, teach them to go to the weak side of the net, not the middle, not the strong side. Every pee wee hockey player is taught to go to the far post and stop, to pick up rebounds, etc. Not the Sharks, they want to do flybys on the net, or drive to the close post, providing a minimal chance of tipping the puck into the net. Thorntonis one of the worst offenders on the flybys.

Stevo

NoCupWithDW,

Sorry if you can’t do what you and FireDougWilson endlessly imply that you can do better than Doug Wilson.

No need to advertise your insecurity and lack of Constitutional knowledge on top of it all.

NoCupWithDW

HN,

while I believe Seto would fits a current need on the Sharks, Clowe also fits a need if there were other players scoring. It is all about a snapshot in time. Personally, I think the Sharks can use both of their skill sets. Seto’s scoring and Clowe’s feistiness. Given today’s team composition, I believe Clowe is better suited in a 3rd line role or on Thornton’s line. Why, both play a slow game.

Stevo

American Constitutional knowledge.. just so we’re clear on that.

That Bearded Puck

If by reason you mean beat me over the head with your non-facts, then no you can’t.

ZEKE

And one other guy I’d like to see in a forward role — maybe 2-3 shifts a game. Douglas Murray. Send him to the front of the crease to get in the eyes of the goalie. Let him battle for position down there a few times a game. If nothing else, he’d wear down whoever tried to move him and he’d have an impact on the goalie sight lines.

Its a very specialized role, but its not like the other forwards are putting up the points.

CJ

doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.
is the defenition of insanity!

DUMP AND CHASE
DUMP AND CHASE
DUMP AND CHASE

HOPE HOCKEY AT ITS BEST

SHARKS HOCKEY………..BORING AND PREDICTABLE!

AllSport

NoCupWithDW

Interesting what you’ve said about shooting. I agree. In fact, what follows is something I wrote last night but didn’t post…

I’d like to posit an equation:

Lots of shots + few goals = bad shot selection

Every time I hear Wilson or TM talk I wince. We have to shoot the puck more. Um, you’re getting 40+ shots on net consistently (not to mention missing with about another 20) and you’re scoring 1 goal in a game.

Solution? Shoot More!

All of you ask yourself; when was the last time you saw the puck travel at least 20 feet across the front of the crease in the slot for a shot off the pass?

The emphasis on shooting is suicide, and it’s overly-simplistic. How many point shots were blocked last night?

Why were so many blocked? Because of favoring early point shots into a crowd over working the puck to where you can make a cross-ice pass. Everyone’s cramming at the net because, GD it, we’re going to shoot shoot shoot and rebound, even if everyone on the opposition is cramming the net with us.

Note that Couture’s last goal was a shot off the pass that at least went a little way over to the side.

How long have they continued to talk about shooting more? A long time.

Critically important: note that when someone new comes in like Kennedy, who hasn’t been polluted by this foolish system, they’re instantly more effective because they work the puck around instead of lusting for a shot like a teenager drooling over a cheerleader.

I blame the players a lot, but I think much of what I see in them (lack of motivation) is coming from playing within an incredibly stupid offensive system. I noticed Detroit last night was doing the same stuff (unlike what they used to do), with similar bad results. The players are like troops with a bad general—dispirited and trying to make dumb tactics work.

Instead of allowing the players to be loose and creative, causing the havoc and confusion that produces goals, they are tightly bound in the ‘system’ of shoot-and-hope.

Maybe that’s why they were so good at the beginning—they hadn’t been ‘coached’ yet.

Sharks!!!

When are Thornton, Burns, Marleau, Havlat, Boyle contract up? I think they all have no trade clauses right?
Thanks,
🙂

#74 – Agree with a lot of what you just said. I get so frustrated while Boyle or Vlasic holds the shot – holds the shot – holds the shot – there – now the forward is 5 front in front of him, legs together, in a direct line to the net and he SHOOTS. And of course it hits the opponents shin pads and bounces out of the zone.

Phil

I don’t think anyone cares anymore, but while Seto’s point totals have been consistent, he used to go for really long streaks without points. On at least two occasions, he shaved his head — which is notable in part because he had time to regrow his hair and then shave it again — when he was pointless for a long streak.

One last bit. There was mention of the Sharks getting 40+ shots a night. Depending on how you define shots, that’s not necessarily true. We’re good for 41 Corsi events a game — about 30% are blocked, 20% miss the net, and the other 50% are on goal.

If you count shots on goal, we’re only good for about 20 a night.

It’s worth noting that both of our numbers (shots & Corsi) are well below the league average. On the plus side, our defense has been good enough to keep our opponents to well below the league average. On average, we have 41 Corsi events against us and 21 shots against. Over the course of the season, our Corsi +/- is -8 which indicates even possession of the puck and even opportunity to score.

Phil

(I should note that all those numbers are even strength hockey. I did not discount score effects either.)

AllSport

#81

So you didn’t count power plays.

What’s that saying, lies, damn lies and…?

MLBSF

Pass pass pass pass pass then Boyle shoots and it goes in.

See what happens when you shoot.

Sharkcut

SteveO your a clueless 0. Ignorance is bliss! You don’t know what you don’t know……